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main difference between them was, that Protocol cared for nothing but excitement, whereas Peter never for a moment lost sight of the main chance. You may conceive, therefore, with what joy the latter received the intimation that he might expect, in a short while, to receive a private and confidential visit from no less a person than Mat-o'-the-Mint. Not that Mat was any great acquisition in

himself; but being a near relative of the Juggler, and also an upper servant in Squire Bull's household, nothing could be more consonant with the secret wishes of Peter. So he ordered three chapels to be illuminated, and a special prayer to be chaunted for the conversion of Bullocks-hatch; at the mention of which name, it is recorded that some images winked their eyes!

CHAPTER IV.

HOW MAT-O'-THE-MINT UNDERTOOK AN EXPEDITION TO THE ESTATES OF SIGNOR MACARONI;

AND WHAT FOLLOWED THEREUPON.

Mat-o'-the-Mint, then, having got his roving commission signed in due form, and his pocket-book well stuffed with bank-notes, set out upon his tour like an actual walking mystery. It is my opinion, up to the present hour, that the excellent gentleman had no precise idea of what he was expected to do; but that his general notion was that he was bound to give advice-at least such advice as he could give-to any one who asked him for it. No man can be expected to accomplish impossibilities: he can merely do his best; and that Mat-o'the-Mint was prepared to perform quite conscientiously. It was not his fault, if those who sent him did not make him comprehend their design; indeed Protocol, who was a sly fox, and always left a door of escape open for himself in case of emergency, was not likely to be too specific in his instructions, or to commit himself irretrievably on paper.

No sooner was it noised abroad that Mat-o'-the-Mint was on his travels, than there was a considerable stir both among the southern squirearchy and their tenantry, who were then unfortunately at loggerheads. Everybody who had a dispute with anybody else wanted to know what Squire Bull thought of the matter, hoping probably that he would not be disinclined to lend him a helping hand, and mayhap a few pounds; for the fellows in those parts laboured under the delusion that the Squire was made of money. So they were all anxious to get a confidential hearing from Mato'-the-Mint, whom they imagined to be a very great man indeed, and a

very wise one; arguing, naturally enough, that the Squire would not have entrusted such a mission except to a person of consummate prudence and discretion. Little they knew of the Juggler or Protocol, or of the way in which Squire Bull's business was conducted! But to resume. One fine day Mat-o'-the-Mint arrived on the estate of a gentleman, Don Vesuvius, who was an old friend of Bull's, and was received at the boundary by the ground-steward, who, in the very civilest possible manner, presented his master's compliments, and requested that Master Matthew would drive straight up to the Hall, where a handsome suite of apartments was ready for his accommodation. Privately, and in his heart, Mat would have liked nothing better; but he was not quite sure whether Protocol would approve of his doing so, especially as Don Vesuvius was notoriously on bad terms with some of his own people. So he thought it best to decline for the present.

"My compliments," quoth he, "to your master, and say to him that I am quite sensible that he has done the proper thing in asking me to the Hall. But you see that I am so situated that I can't very well come. My master, the squire, has heard a good deal of what is going on in these parts; and though, as a matter of course, he has no wish to interfere between the Don and his tenantry, yet the fact is that, under present circumstancess, I had better put up at the inn. Say to your master that I shall be glad to see him there, any time he may be passing; at all events,

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Additional Chapters from the History of John Bull.

I shall certainly make a point of
writing him my opinion on the general
question, in the course of a day or
So."

Now, it so happened that there
were a number of lazy-looking fellows,
with knives in their belts, loitering
around the drosky while Mat-o'-the-
Mint delivered this answer to the
ground steward; and these were pre-
cisely the worst of the whole crew
with whom Don Vesuvius was at
feud. Who so rejoiced as they to
find that Squire Bull's confidential
servant was likely to be on their side!
They threw up their hats, and brayed,
and danced, and cut fandangos, to all
which Mat-o'-the-Mint replied by
taking off his hat and bowing like a
Chinese mandarin. At last, in the
exuberance of their joy, the crowd
took the horses out of the vehicle, and
fairly dragged him to the village inn,
leaving the unhappy ground steward
as disconsolate as Ariadne on Naxos.

No sooner were they arrived at the inn, than Mat asked a number of the men to step up to his sitting-room; and having questioned them regarding their grievances, which you may be sure they took care to magnify to the utmost, he called for pen, ink, and paper, and sate himself down to write a long epistle to Don Vesuvius. I can't give you the particulars of this document, further than that it contained an intimation that in his, Mat-o'-the-Mint's opinion, the gentleman had been very much misled in the management of his own affairs. That for the sake of restoring peace and tranquillity, it appeared to the aforesaid Matthew that Don Vesuvius would do well to surrender one half of his estate to the tenantry, without receiving any consideration for it; and that if this arrangement, which he merely ventured to suggest, should meet with approbation, there could be no difficulty whatever in reducing the rents on the remaining half. As also that the undersigned was with the highest consideration, &c. &c. Having finished this doughty epistle, which he despatched by the boots of the inn, Mat ordered his equipage, and drove away to another estate, as proud as Punch, amidst the shouts of the whole idlers of the village.

You may fancy the astonishment of

[Jan.

the honest gentleman when he read Mat's letter. It was some time before he could believe the evidence of he said, "is it possible that Squire his spectacles. "Good heavens ! " Bull can treat an old friend and fellow-sportsman thus? dozens upon dozens of letters under Haven't I his own hand, guaranteeing me possession of my whole estate, and am I insulted to boot by an old trenchernow to be fobbed off in this way, and But I won't believe it! It must be man of whom nobody ever heard? who is perpetually writing letters some trick of that rascal, Protocol, without authority in the name of his master-at all events, I won't submit to be dictated to, in the disposal of my own, by the best Squire living!"

portion of the tenantry were fully By this time, however, the riotous possessed with the notion that Squire Bull was ready to back them up to insurrection, fired at the gamekeepers, any extent; so they began a regular beat the watchmen, and barricaded thoroughly plundered it. one of the villages, after they had reckoned without their host; for the But they tenantry on the home farm were to a armed themselves, they crossed the man true to their master, and having canal, (in which, by the way, some of John's barges were lying, it was tocol,) and gave the rascally rabble thought with the connivance of Prosuch a drubbing, that nothing more was heard afterwards about the parhowever, believe to this hour that tition of the property. The rioters, they were deceived by Squire Bull, who, they aver, had promised to support them, and they accordingly hate him like ratsbane; neither, as you may well conceive, is Don Vesuvius, whose property was proposed to be divided, oyer and above grateful for this impudent interference with his private affairs.

of the mischief which was effected by This, however, was a mere segment Mat-o'-the-Mint. Wherever he went he tendered advice; and whenever that advice was given, rioting ensued. In short, he proved such a nuisance, rather have submitted to a visit from that well-affected people would much Peter's patrimony, a place which was the cholera. At last he arrived at

by no means tranquil at the time. Notwithstanding Peter's boasting, and his perpetual attempt to get his emissaries quartered on every estate in the country, he was the reverse of popular at home. He had a very handsome house, which he kept full of friars, monks, Jesuits, Dominicans, Carthusians, and Grand Inquisitors, fellows who did little else than eat, drink, sleep, and conspire at the expense of the working population. This had become so intolerable, that Peter, though the most tyrannical despot upon earth, found it necessary to come down a peg or two, and announced his intention of revising the laws of his household, which, to say the truth, needed mending sorely. But he did not stop there. He began to intrigue for a restoration of the whole estates which were formerly in the family of Signor Macaroni, but which latterly had passed into the hands of other proprietors-for example, Don Ferdinando; and, at the time I speak of, his village was filled with every description of cut-throat, robber, and murderer that could be gathered from the country round, all of them shouting "Long life to Peter!" and "Hurrah for the independence of Macaroni!" They were in the very midst of this jubilation, which sounded more like an echo of Pandemonium than anything else, whe n Mat-o'-the-Mint drove into the town; and the moment they heard of his arrival, the very worst of them Massaniello, Massaroni, Corpo di Caio Mario, and Vampyrio degli Assassinacione congregated under the windows, and whooped and howled, till Mat, in an access of terror, came out upon the balcony, pressed a flag, with a death's-head and cross-bones upon it, to his bosom, and proposed three cheers for the independence of Macaroni!

You

may conceive what a taking the poor fellow must have been in before he ventured to do anything of the sort.

Mat, being thus committed to Macaroni, was a mere baby in the hands of Peter. They had an interview to discuss the affairs of the neighbouring Squirearchy, and any other little matters which might occur to either; which Mat felt as an honour, whilst Peter was feeling his pulse. Peter,

like an aged villain as he was, affected to be extremely straightforward and open in his remarks, and quite confidential in his communications; so that, in the course of half an hour, poor Mat was entirely at his mercy. After they had chatted for a short time, and cracked a bottle or so of Lachrymæ together, Peter claps me down a map of the whole country, whereon Squire Bull's farm was marked out with some twelve or thirteen crosses, before Mat, and asked him whether he thought it was all correct?

Undubitably," quoth Mat-o'-theMint, who regarded the crosses as simply indicative of the villages.

Then there can be no objections to the publication of a map of this kind upon hierarchical principles ?" continued Peter, ogling his victim at the same time, as a fox makes love to a gander.

"Hier-I beg your pardon"-said Mat-o'-the-Mint, who was not overburdened with lore at any time, and just then was rather confuscated. "Hieroglyphical principles, did you say?"

"No-hierarchical principles," insinuated Peter, with a smile intended to convey the utmost amount of indulgence. "Hiero, you know, was one of our earliest geographers."

"To be sure he was"-replied Mat-o'-the-Mint-" and an intimate friend of Leander's--I've read of him in the Imaginary Conversations There can be no objections, of course. The map's a capital map !"

"I'm very glad to hear you say so," said Peter, sounding a little silver whistle which dangled from his button-hole, "it is always matter of satisfaction to me to meet with a plain, intellectual, honourable, enlightened gentleman, who knows what's what, and is above all manner of prejudice.—You may take away that map, Hippopotamus"-he continued, as an individual in purple stockings entered the room. "Mr Matthew is perfectly satisfied as to its correctness, and you may mention that when you write to your friends at home."

Hippopotamus swept up the plan and retired; but long after he close the door, you might have heard sniggering in the lobby.

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Additional Chapters from the History of John Bull.

"And now, my very dear friend," quoth Peter, "let's have a fresh bottle of Lachrymæ, and a little conversation about those affairs of Patrick's." It matters very little what passed upon that score, for the job was already settled; but Peter probably thought it safest to make this appear the principal topic of their conversation. They sate up a long time together; and Mat-o'-the-Mint found it no easy matter to get home to his hotel, or to ring up the porter when he arrived there.

So far Peter thought that he was carrying everything his own way; but he was labouring all the while under a confounded mistake. Massaniello, Massaroni, and the rest, were glad enough to get into the village, and to throw up their caps for Peter and Macaroni, so long as they received free quarters, but not a moment longer. They had now time given them to peer into the churches and shops, and to reckon what might be turned to account; and they had made up their minds that if they could only get rid of Peter, there was plunder enough to be had out of his patrimony to maintain themselves in comfort for the remaining portion of their lives. Once having ascertained this, they lost no time in carrying their plans into execution. They broke out into actual revolt, stabbed one of Peter's servants on the stairs, shut up the old firebrand himself in his drawing-room, and discharged pistols into the windows, until they succeeded in frightening him out of his seven senses, and drove him out of the village in the disguise of an ordinary cabman. Then they began, as a matter of course, to help themselves to every man's property, and to share upon principles of equality. You have no idea what a row all this made. Even Ferdinando was furious, for though he had no great cause to regard Peter, he liked still less the rascally ruffians who had turned him out of house and home, and he proposed straightway to march a posse comitatus against them. But young Nap, now styled Administrator of the Baboonery, was before him. He had more idle fellows on hand than he knew what to do with, so he sent a

[Jan.

whole gang of them off to clear Peter's patrimony of the rioters, and mayhap, if convenient, to bring back the old execrations of Massaniello and his Jesuit in person. Terrible were the friends when they were summoned to surrender by young Nap's people! They said-what was true enoughPhilip Baboon, they were entitled to that if the others were entitled to eject they protested that the people of each turn Peter about his business; and estate should be allowed to manage their own matters without interference. day. Everybody was interfering; so But interference was the order of the Nap's men gave them to understand that they did not intend to be excepMassaniello and his friends must tions to the general rule. In short, evacuate or-take the consequences. though not without a good deal of And, accordingly, evacuate they did, burning of gunpowder, levying of subsidies, abduction of church-plate, Peter was brought back, amidst a &c.; and, in due course of time, old discharge of Roman candles, squibs, crackers, and Catherine wheels; and with him returned the whole host of Jesuits, monks, and inquisitors, singing Quare fremuerunt gentes? and ten times more ready for any kind of mischief than before.

ask, was Mat-o'-the-Mint? And where all this while, you may at home. Some of the upper servants Snug got an inkling of the business he was in the household of Squire Bull had after, and put questions, which were neither easy to answer nor agrecable to grumble. Protocol could not help to evade. The Squire himself began perceiving that he had got into a scrape by sending out such an envoy; and the matter publicly mentioned, but even the Juggler did not care to have oblivion. was willing that it should fall into It is, however, easier to get out of one. open a negotiation with Peter, than to The difficulty is not to catch the lobster, but to force him you with his claws; and you shall to leave go after he has fastened on presently hear what took place in when Peter was reinstated in his Bullockshatch, not long after the time patrimony.

HUNGARIAN MILITARY SKETCHES.

THE brief but brilliant struggle which was terminated, on the 13th August 1849, by the surrender of Vilagos, is unquestionably one of the most remarkable episodes in contemporary history; and numerous as are the writers, both in Germany and England, who have applied themselves to exhibit and comment on its circumstances, it yet is not wonderful that the interest of the subject is far from exhausted. A Schlesinger, a Pulsky, and a Klapka, graphic and striking as are their delineations of the singular contest in which they all more or less participated, have still left much for their successors to tell. The volume before us-a German collective translation of tales and sketches by several Hungarian authors -is of a different class from the works of the above-named writers. It does not aspire to the dignity of historical memoirs, nor is the form it affects-namely, the romantic-one that we usually much admire when applied to such recent and important events as those of which Hungary has been the theatre; events, too, of themselves so striking and fascinating as to render fictitious colouring superfluous. Nevertheless, these sketches must be admitted to have considerable merit. They are vivid and characteristic illustrations of a remarkable country, a heroic people, and an extraordinary period; and the amount of fiction interwoven is, in most instances, little more than is necessary to string together historical facts. Some few of them have little to do with the late war, but all throw more or less light upon the state and character of Hungary and its inhabitants. Their success in that country, the German preface assures us, and we can readily believe, has been very great. Some of them read like prose translations of poems; and with the exception of three or four, which are terse and matter-of-fact enough, their style has often a wild and metaphorical vagueness, recalling the semi

oriental character of the country whence they proceed. Those which take for their foundation the cruelties perpetrated by the Serbs upon the Magyars, and the fearful retaliation thereby provoked, are too horrible-not for truth, but to be pleasant reading; others border on the humorous, whilst some combine the tragic with the gay. Of this last class is the opening sketch by Sajó, entitled A Ball. It is a letter from a young lady to a friend, describing her and her mother's terror at the anticipated arrival of a Hungarian division, after English Guyon's glorious victory at Branisko; and relating how the old woman hid herself in cupboards and clock-cases, and urged her daughter to stain her face black, in order to diminish her personal attractions-advice which the daughter, not exactly comprehending its motive, most indignantly rejects. Presently she is astonished by the arrival of a couple of handsome hussar officers, instead of the leather-clad Calmuck-visaged barbarians, seven feet high, and with beards to their waists, which her mamma has predicted; and still more is she surprised when, instead of breaking open doors and ill-treating women, the newcomers organise a ball for that very night-a ball which she attends, and where she is greatly smitten with an elegant captain of Honveds. He has just led her out to dance, when the ball-room windows rattle to the sound of cannon, and a splashed hussar announces an attack upon the outposts. The officers buckle on their sabres and hurry to the fight, begging the ladies to await their return. In little more than an hour they reappear in the ball-room. They have repulsed the enemy, and return flushed and laughing to the dance. But the handsome Honved is not amongst them. The interrupted quadrille is re-formed, but Laura still awaits her partner. A tall dry-mannered major, of valiant reputation, approaches her. "Fair lady," he says, your partner

66

Schlachtfelderblüthen aus Ungarn. Novellen nach wahren Kriegs-Scenen. Leipzig und Pestb, 1850. London: Williams and Norgate.

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